The present invention is directed to a mirror mount for a gas laser, particularly a HeNe gas laser. The mirror mount contains a mirror receptacle, which is composed of a material having a coefficient of thermal expansion matched to that of the resonator mirror, and the mirror receptacle at least partially embraces a resonator mirror and is attached to a tube having a coefficient of thermal expansion differing from that of the mirror receptacle so that the mirror is in axial alignment with the tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,032, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto and which claims priority from German Application 39 17 744, discloses a mirror mount with two parts. The U.S. Patent discloses a cylindrical mirror mount, which is manufactured of steel and another part surrounding the mirror, which is manufactured of a material having a coefficient of thermal expansion matched to that of the mirror. The material of the part surrounding the mirror, however, is difficult to process by machining and, thus, requires a long processing time. Also, disturbing burrs will occur during the machining or processing steps.
It has already been proposed elsewhere to fabricate the mirror mount of a steel tubing, introduce the mirror into an end region of a co-enlarged inside diameter of the steel tubing and to solder it with glass solder at the circumference. This embodiment requires a relatively complicated annular part, since the glass solder must be prevented from running so that a brake for the flow of the glass solder in the form of a diameter step and an uncut portion must be provided. This means considerable cost during manufacture.